Authorities are eyeing the possibility of a link between the US Army veterans who are suspects in separate acts of terrorism in Las Vegas and New Orleans on New Year’s Day.
Matthew Livelsberger, who is suspected of triggering a Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel at the Fashion Show Drive, and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is accused of driving a Ford pickup through a crowd on Bourbon Street, are said to have likely “overlapped” at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and again in Afghanistan during their time in the service.
The “very strange similarities” were confirmed by Las Vegas Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, a report by Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Illuminator said, but noted that no evidence of a connection between the two attacks has been confirmed.
The law enforcement official further specified that both suspects were deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and also rented the vehicles used in the recent events from the same online source.
McMahill then added the connections could be coincidental and emphasized that the investigation is still at an early stage.
“What we do know about that is it’s a very large military base, and we have no record that they served in the same unit, or even at the same years at Fort Bragg, something that continues to remain under investigation,” McMahill commented.
January 1 Attacks
Based on the January 1 reports, 37-year-old Green Beret Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs on December 28 and packed the Tesla vehicle with firework mortars and gas cans.
Livelsberger parked the vehicle “right up to the glass entrance doors” of the hotel partly owned by US President-elect Donald Trump on New Year’s Day, with the suspect “likely” to have planned a more damaging detonation which was primarily absorbed by the steel structure of the Cybertruck.
Livelsberger shot himself in the head before the explosion, according to the police, and was found with burned semi-automatic weapons, identification, credit cards, and a phone.
The FBI in New Orleans uncovered an explosive device in the truck and a flag affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS).
Over seven people were injured in the Las Vegas bombing, while 14 were killed and over 30 people were injured in New Orleans.